Information on Mergers & Acquisitions transactions being leaked to the media - June 2025

We have observed that there have been instances of announcements of potential M&A activity which appear to have been initiated by media speculation. We have set out in the table below figures held by the FCA regarding recent instances of M&A transactions or potential transactions which have been announced, together with figures for those which appear to have been initiated by media speculation.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide the full data set being asked for, as we do not hold equivalent data going back further than Q2 2024. The statement made was predominantly based on observations of live market monitoring in a variety of different ways and over a period of time.

These figures reflect data held by the FCA, may not document every instance, and exclude all overseas listed stocks. Please note that these cases may not necessarily be defined as being in breach of Market Abuse Regulations. 

From 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2025, we have opened 33 operations into potential market abuse. We open an Enforcement operation when we have decided to appoint investigators under Pt XI of the Financial Services & Markets Act 2000.

We have provided figures based on the date an enforcement operation is recorded as having been opened on our system. A single operation may entail investigations into multiple firms and individuals that are opened at different times. The figures below do not include enforcement operations that were first opened prior to 1 January 2020, that have a specific firm or individual investigation within that operation that was opened within the last 5 years.